Angelina DeFilippis

Changing Beliefs Assignment

I always knew that fears and phobias came from a past experience or moment. They don’t

just come from nowhere. There’s always a reason for them. And there’s always a moment that

can kind of gauge and pinpoint where that certain phobia came from. However I never knew that

it was related to classical conditioning. I always just associated classical conditioning with the

stereotypical examples. This includes a dog getting a treat for good behavior or a cat getting

sprayed with water when it misbehaves. But I never associated classical conditioning with

something so mundane and something that occurs in peoples everyday lives.

Contrary to my previous beliefs, classical conditioning has a direct relation to phobias

and fears. This tends to be a very common example from everyday life. In fact, this research

starts in Amina, research laboratories. They had the animals react to a stimulus that was

continuously connected to another one. (Coelho) The experiment conditioned them to be afraid

of the given stimulus. And fear was instilled due to the repetition. Basically, after being put in a

situation that was deemed bad or uncomfortable or scary, the animals only reaction was to be

scared. When these stimuli would occur over and over, the pain, in park to what were typically

shocks, would instill this fear in the affected animal. It’s fascinating that the the root of a phobia

isn’t because one is scared in particular, but because of a deeper level of pain or discomfort.

By knowing how classical conditioning plays a role in the creation of phobias and fears,

there’s many things I can take from this and apply to my own everyday life. For starters, I can

look back at my own childhood and see where my own fears came from. For example, why am I

scared of bugs? Was there a traumatic experience I had? It feels like everyone is just scared of

bugs. But I was always taught how gross and scary they were. This fear tactic along with their

overexposed appearance in the King Kong movie is what I believe is behind my fear of bugs.
Angelina DeFilippis

Along with that discovery, I can also see where my new and deeper fears are coming from. As a

young adult sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint what I should and shouldn’t be afraid of while I

become an adult. But with this insight, I can get a better grasp on my feelings and fears.

Coelho, Carlos Magalhães, and Helena Purkis. “The Origins of Specific Phobias: Influential

Theories and Current Perspectives.” Review of General Psychology, vol. 13, no. 4, Dec.

2009, pp. 335–348, doi:10.1037/a0017759.